CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

The second edition of Mack 'n' Me: Blaedergil's Host released on January 20, and is now available once more. What's changed? Story-wise, not a lot. The book has had a re-edit and received a new cover (courtesy of Moonchild Ljilja at Fantasy Book Design ) and new front and back matter, ensuring it gives a solid base for the stories that follow. What's the Series About? I'd like to say the entire series is about persistence when everything goes wrong...and the hope that, if you continue trying, something will finally go right, but my readers tell me it reminds me of a dysfunctional Firefly - and Heaven knows that crew was dysfunctional enough! - or that its kinda like grim-dark in space - and I'm not sure it's really that dark, but I'll take their word for it. In short, it's a dark, paramilitary, action-adventure science-fiction novel set in a far-distant, and probably alternate, future where a small mercenary company tries to navigate it...

This week’s verse moves from a reflective verse about moving on when you've suffered a setback in life to a science fiction verse about the dangers of an unauthorised planetary excursion. It is taken from Another 365 Days of Poetry , a collection of mixed-genre poetry released in 2019. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Caution on the Gathak'nor I spasmed in the Gathak’nor and tumbled down the hill. In the wake of dandelions, the bluebells seemed to spill clouds of pus and whitened bone, as I found the river bank and tumbled o’er the brink into a torrid torrent rank and, in case you’re wond’ring, why I was walking Gathak’nor, when the planet is forbidden and will remain so evermore, t’is because I found a signal, something faint that called, and I rode the beacon down and landed on a world that used to be a colony before its nature true ...

This week’s short story takes us from a far-flung future of human exploration and alien encounters to one of quiet apocalypse. Welcome to Ducky. Three characters, a dead duck, and a plague-devastated city. What more could you ask for? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ducky is available as a stand-alone short story at the following links: books2read.com/u/mda0d4 . You can also find Kristine Kathryn Rusch's latest free short story over on her blog: kriswrites.com . Why don't you go and check it out?  

The cover for my science-fiction short story, The Years of Voyage , has been approved. If you like stories of plague, colonists and crashed starships, you might like to check this one out when it releases on July 14.